
Word to the wise writer: never underestimate your secondary characters! But watch them... they sneak off with stuff.
WritingKa HancockA story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.
WritingCarlos Ruiz Zafón in The Shadow of the WindI want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.
WritingKen FollettAnd it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.
Alan RickmanPeople aren't like numbers. They're more like letters. And those letters want to become stories. And dad said that stories need to be shared.
LettersExtremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Oskar SchellYou always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.
Julia QuinnI firmly believe that a story is only as good as the villain.
Clive BarkerIt never has happened, and it never will happen, and that is why it is told.
Karen BlixenA story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is - full of surprises.
SurprisesIsaac Bashevis SingerOne can believe in a story without believing it happened.
Brandon Sanderson in The Stormlight Archive - OathbringerAll stories told have been told before. We tell them to ourselves, as did all men who ever were. And all men who ever will be. The only things new are the names.
Brandon Sanderson in The Stormlight Archive - Words of RadianceI confess, I need stories to understand the world.
Siegfried LenzWell, you need the villain. If you don't have a villain, the good guy can stay home.
MoviesChristoph WaltzSome people believe if we repeat stories often enough they become real. They make us who we are. That can be scary.
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, by Stella NichollsIt's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, to FrodoA good story never dies.
Roberta Williams